FROM THIS EPISODE

The water's running and the lights are still on, but America's biggest municipal utility is in trouble. The fifth general manger in seven years has resigned, and the powerful boss of its biggest union has been subpoenaed to testify about how $40 million in public money is being spent. What is he hiding? If Mayor Garcetti can't get the money accounted for, where's the City Council? We hear some questions that are begging for answers. Also, a sculpture of a mushroom cloud is designed to warn against the horrors of nuclear war. Can the City of Santa Monica afford to save it?

On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, from Pope Francis to President Obama to Republicans including Paul Ryan and Rand Paul, it's time to focus on income inequality. Can Democrats and Republicans even agree on extending benefits to the long-term unemployed? What about increasing the minimum wage?

LA's Department of Water and Power is the biggest utility of its kind in the country, but it's had five managers in the past seven years. Last week, Ron Nichols announced his resignation, raising a host of questions. Among them, why can't he or Brian D'Arcy — business manager of the city's most powerful union — reveal how $40 million in public money is being spent. Jack Dolan is following the story for the Los Angeles Times.

Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Paul Conrad was the LA Times' political cartoonist for many years. In 1991, he designed a sculpture made of tangled chains that formed a mushroom cloud as a warning against the horrors of nuclear war. Since 1991, "Chain Reaction," has been a fixture outside City Hall in Santa Monica, but it became so deteriorated that the City Council approved its removal as a safety measure. Then it was designated a local landmark, and there's been a campaign to save it. Tonight, Bob Scheer will be part of a fundraiser at Writer's BootCamp at Bergamont Station. He's editor in chief of the website TruthDig and a featured presence on KCRW's syndicated program, Left, Right and Center.